Hunted: An Erotic Retelling of Beauty and the Beast (An Adult Fairy Tale Novel) (28 page)

Yes and no, probably.  Two different answers, but not entirely.  Beatrix must know more, but she couldn't deal with one of the named fallen angels on her own, so there was that; she obviously didn't know enough.  Granted, most regular witches would never have been able to deal with one either, but most would've died in the process of summoning anything like Pinem'e, too.  Beatrix obviously wasn't dead, so she must be at least competently powerful.

Good, Matilda thought.  Good and, yes, she would work alongside her protege again.  Despite the fact that she thought Beatrix was slightly unhinged, in a manner of speaking (because what witch would offer to safeguard an entire household for paltry compensation?), Matilda liked her.

That Danya girl was similar in some ways, too.  Perhaps that's why Beatrix wanted to be closer to her.  That'd hardly work out, but whatever they wanted to do.  What business did Matilda have butting into personal stupidity?  Sharing Everett between them, though?  Really?  Ha!  Beatrix should've just taken him for her own and cursed the other girl into the form of a frog or something similar.  That was the easiest, and thus the best solution, but alas, no.  Beatrix and her softness...

The other sister intrigued Matilda, though.  Some sultry demoness now, was she?  Somewhat, though not entirely.  She seemed curious and intriguing, almost like how Beatrix initially was.  Dante might spoil her and make her into some weak thing, but Matilda thought she might be able to fix that.  Odd, too, she contemplated whether she could use Dante to enhance it.  She'd never thought of these things before in her original life, but her revival gave her an increased perspective.

And then there was...

"Matty," someone said to her.

She didn't want to be harangued, especially by incessant nonsense.  This was exactly the reason why she'd holed herself up in the library, because hardly anyone should bother coming here.  But they did, and they felt confident and comfortable enough in her presence that they could call her by a nickname?  She'd teach them a lesson immediately.

Glancing up, Matilda saw a man wearing butler's garb and hoisting a platter with a tea kettle, cups, and a cream and sugar cube container.  He looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

And then she noticed the elegant pocketwatch stuck inside his breast pocket.

"Ah, the Timekeeper.  You're here, too, are you?"

"You should remember," Horatio said.  "Or has death addled your pretty little head?"

"You brought me back, did you?  How often?"

"As often as I could," he said with a shrug.  "Tea?"  The butler set the platter on a side table nearby and began pouring a cup for each of them.

"This is the first time I've fully come beyond the grave," Matilda said, indifferent.  "I'm sure I'll remember in time.  Feel free to indulge me with tales of your shenanigans if you so wish, though."

Horatio tipped some cream into one of the tea cups, then plunked down two cubes of sugar.  He handed it to her with a smile.

"I shouldn't tell you this," he said.  "But when I'd twist you into existence, I told everyone you were a maid.  You played the part wonderfully, too.  Mostly.  No one seemed to notice when you were absent, when your time had run out, but that made it all the more wonderful.  Dante knew.  You'll remember that, I'm sure.  He'll wish to speak with you about it later, I'm certain."

"Was I Matilda then?" she asked.  "Matty?  That might've been too obvious, hm?"

"Darcy to most," Horatio said.  "That's the name we settled on."

Matilda considered it before scrunching up her nose.  "I don't care for it overly much."

Horatio shrugged.  "I didn't care for the time you grew angry at me because Beatrix hadn't revived you yet, and then you slept with Master Everett when I refused to try and persuade her.  I did tell you she'd do it eventually.  You should listen better."

"It was supposed to be her first wish!" Matilda said.  "Her first!  Well, second real wish, I suppose.  She needed immortality beforehand.  I never really expected her to believe me when I said I'd do the same for her if she brought me back immediately.  If she did then she'd just be an idiot and no true pupil of mine.  I suppose the fact that she revived me at all makes her a terrible student, but I won't quibble over minor personality flaws."

"You're a difficult woman," he said.  "I can somewhat understand her reticence.  I knew she'd return you to us, though.  Also, to be honest, I had an enjoyable time dressing you up in servant outfits.  You likely wouldn't have let me do that otherwise, correct?"

"That's a question, isn't it?  You want me to dress in some costume for your arousal?  Why don't you twist that pocketwatch of yours and just make yourself young again, so we can do away with that necessity?  You shouldn't need some stupid costume in order for me to get you erect.  Go back to your prime, old man."

"I would," Horatio said, smirking while tipping cream and placing sugar into his own teacup.  "I'd like to remain here, though.  Generally I don't, but I find myself interested in Master Everett's future plans."

"Just stay and tell them you can control time on a whim with that little watch of yours.  You always vanish off and take up residence somewhere else whenever you reset your age.  It's annoying and bothersome.  What if someone who didn't care about any of that wanted to find you?  It's difficult, you know?"

"Who would that be?" Horatio asked with a grin.

"Shut up and sit beside me, you lecherous coot."

Matilda scooted aside in her chair, allowing Horatio a seat.  It was close, perhaps too close, but she didn't mind it.  He sat there, genteel and gentlemanly.  Then not.

Turning to the side, lording over her with domineering intent, Horatio licked a trail up her neck, towards her ear, where he nibbled lightly on her earlobe.  Beatrix tried to restrain herself, wanted to feign indifference, but the Timekeeper knew her better than anyone.  He could never give her true immortality before, but he gave her glimpses of it, and he offered her a look of nigh eternal youth, despite the fact that imminent death loomed around every the corner.

"I'll stay," he said, sending a wash of hot breath to tickle her ear.  "We can be together now, and I'll stay, but I'd like to maintain my position within the mansion, Matty.  Will you help me?"

Flustered, cheeks red, Matilda looked away from him.  Unfortunately this revealed more of her neck, which he caressed lightly with his fingertips.  "How?" she asked.

"We can explain to Everett and the sisters, but I'd prefer everyone else forget.  If you do that for me, cast the spell to make them think I've always been young and dapper, I'll stay and please you whenever you wish."

"And..."  Matilda started to speak, to potentially protest, but Horatio pawed at her breasts roughly with his time-worn hands.  She gasped, eyes opening wide.

"Please, Matty?" he said.

"What," she said, labored, "makes you think I want your pleasure, Timekeeper?"

"You're the only one I've ever wanted, Matty.  And I'm the only one who's ever pleased you."

"Not so," she said.  "Beatrix is doing a good..."

"Like this," he said, throwing up the front of her dress and stuffing a greedy hand between her legs.  His fingers snuck past her panties and plied at her delicate folds.  "Not like that, Matty.  Like this."

"Show me," she said, trying to maintain some modicum of demurity.  "Show me and I'll consider it."

"I think we both already know I was planning on doing exactly that," he said.

He teased a finger inside of her, causing her to bite her bottom lip in excitement.  "Why do you want to stay with them?" she asked.  "They're just... mortals.  Why would someone like you want to waste your time here?"

Horatio kissed the archwitch hard, forcing her body against the back of the chair while he teased and tormented her sex.  "Fond attachment," he said.  "It is what is, nothing more nor less.  Why else do you think I'd bring you back occasionally after you died?"

"You sound like Beatrix," Matilda scoffed.  "Ridiculous."

"Shut up, you wench, and let me feel your pussy clench around my fingers while I bring you to orgasm."

What should she say to that?  She did as he asked.  The fate of Beatrix and Danya and Everett could be determined later.  Alena and Dante weren't much more of an issue in her mind, either.  Her heart pulsed fast, body tightening, as the Timekeeper pushed his fingers hard inside of her.

Perhaps he was right.  Perhaps love and affection weren't a terrible thing, and everything would work out in the end.  She doubted it, never really understood it either.  Except she supposed she might now.  Initially she'd sought the Timekeeper out as a means to immortality, but things escalated from there.  When it was obvious he couldn't give her what she wished for, well... the rose was something, but it'd never work.  And then Beatrix.

Beatrix's life expanded, too.  Grew outwards.  She found more, wanted more.  Matilda only wanted to live.  More could come after she figured out how to conquer time and eternity.

And she had, hadn't she?  Unfortunately she grew fond of people in the process, despite what she wanted.  Fondness never turned out well.  Someone always got hurt by it.  She remembered an expression she'd gathered from the future: You're fucked.

The Timekeeper was fucking her right now, wasn't he?  With his fingers, but she knew there'd be more.  Again.  Over and over.  They had an eternity, if they wanted.  He'd lived forever already, and he wasn't jaded and cynical, so maybe she should let go of her apprehension, too.

She might consider it.  Currently all she had on her mind was her impending climax.

Everett leaned against the front gates of the mansion grounds and stared into the surrounding forest.  Everything used to be more lively here so long ago.  The manse lay hidden in the woods, but there were paths and passageways created just to lead to this one, solitary point.  People used to visit on occasion and play in the lake, bringing their children—or simply themselves—to swim on a hot summer's day.  In the winter months, when the lake froze over, some visitors enjoyed setting up huts for fishing, while others frolicked and skated across the ice with specially-crafted shoes.

Everett used to do these things, too.  He remembered it all fondly.  Chasing after someone atop the ice with a predatory grin on his face, catching the woman up in his arms and swinging her around.  Then they fell, together, landing on the lake's frozen surface, both of them laughing.

He'd bedded more than a few women that way.  Playing, teasing, flirting.  Nothing ever came of it.  He never expected it to, never even wanted it to.  What did they want, though?

Most of them wanted more, and he knew it.  They'd sleep with him, then watch him, gazing at him with a sense of adoration and affection that he couldn't return.  Am I the one, he imagined them thinking.  Is this finally it?  Has the Master of the Manse chosen a Lady to sit by his side.

It angered him in a way.  Was that all he was to them?  It only angered him for a little while, though; up until he thrust his cockhead between their willing, arousal-slick folds and plunged his cock deep inside of them.

Everett was no stranger to sex.  He'd been having it for quite a long while, in fact.  Dallying with some of the servants initially, then playing at seducing the daughters from families in the surrounding areas.  Playing at seduction became actual seduction with barely any more effort, he learned, and it escalated from there.  More, higher.  Who could he seduce today?  The daughter of a Lord?  Her handmaiden?  The Lord's wife, herself?

He remembered wanting to couple with a Queen at one point, but none lived near here.  Everett's father and mother were as close as it came to being a King and Queen in this area.  His only chance would be to visit surrounding regions, become accustomed to their households while on a trip, and bide his time until he could sneak into intimacy with someone as powerful as he would become.

That never happened, but Beatrix arrived sometime during all of this.  He'd thought nothing of it at first, because... well, she was a witch.  Except he watched her, spied on her, discovered more about her.  She was a witch, yes, much more powerful than a Queen, but less than that, too.  He had read and heard that witches were indifferent and crass, yet Beatrix was never like that.  She apologized if she made mistakes, instead of blaming everything on someone else.  She seemed genuinely interested in helping others, too.

Yes, people feared her, and Everett had to a point, but not for too long.  Dante spoke with her, even.  Beatrix liked his younger brother and they laughed together on occasion.  There wasn't anything more there, though.  Nothing that Everett could see, at least.

He'd grown obsessed soon after that.  More obsessed, he supposed.  Every woman he coupled with seemed beneath him all of a sudden.  Or he imagined them being Beatrix, squealing and moaning as he pounded hard into them.  He went harder, harder still.  Beatrix was a witch and would never be so easily broken by roughness, or so he assumed.  He found himself with more than a few tearful, frightened women laying under his spent body after that.

That intrigued and bothered him all at once.  They climaxed, he knew.  He felt their tremoring grip upon the shaft of his cock and the tensing of their bodies.  Their eyes, their face.  When a woman was in the clutches of orgasm, she always looked slightly in pain, or so he thought.  Except now they truly were.  Not only was he forcing an orgasm upon their weak and frail bodies, but he was inflicting pain on them, too.

Beatrix wouldn't be like that, he told himself then.  These other women were useless, unacceptable, completely ordinary and dull.

And, in fact, Beatrix hadn't been like that.  Everett never really had a chance to put his full force into fucking her, though.  She'd restrained him, kept his sexuality in check with her odd perfection.  It unnerved him and excited him.  He'd thought to treat her like the other women he fucked, rutting hard into her plump, tight snatch and forcing her to acknowledge his cock as he dominated her completely.